Emotional support animals (ESA) are an irreplaceable asset for people with certain mental health conditions or disabilities. These animals have numerous therapeutic benefits that comfort their owners through challenging times and relieve negative emotions. The importance of emotional support animals makes them more than just pets.
Due to their necessity for certain individuals, laws are in place to protect ESAs, ensuring they can always be around to comfort their owners. While much of their protections come from federal mandates, states do uphold these laws and occassionaly put additional mandates in place.
Our full guide gives you a detailed understanding of ESA laws, including those for housing, air travel, and entering public spaces in New Hampshire.
What Is an Emotional Support Animal in New Hampshire?
Emotional support animals (ESA) provide therapeutic benefits to an individual with a mental health condition through their presence. These animals achieve this by being a loyal companion to their owner, giving affection, routine, and support throughout their owner’s day.
Additionally, while most people think of cats and dogs as emotional support animals, an ESA can be any pet you may legally own. New Hampshire. Other than dogs and cats, some of the popular emotional support animals include ferrets, gerbils, chinchillas, rabbits, and birds.
For a pet to be considered an emotional support animal, the owner must have a qualifying mental disability and obtain an ESA letter. This document prescribes the pet to the individual to help alleviate their symptoms.
To get an ESA letter in New Hampshire, you’ll need to speak with a licensed mental health professional, such as a psychiatrist or therapist.
Difference Between ESAs and Service Animals
Emotional support animal laws in New Hampshire can get confusing without knowing the difference between an ESA and a service animal. Below, we give you an overview of the main differences that set these assistance animals apart.
Type of Animal and Eligibility
Emotional support animals can be any pet legally owned in New Hampshire. On the other hand, only dogs can become service animals, as stated by the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA). This means you can have an emotional support cat in New Hampshire, but you can’t have a cat as your service animal.
Furthermore, emotional support animals require an ESA letter from a licensed mental health professional to be officially recognized. Service animals don’t need any legal document or registration, they only need to be trained to perform disability-related tasks.
In terms of verification, documents such as an ESA letter prove status to a landlord or other individual immediately, entities like airlines and businesses can ask questions to verify that an animal is a service animal. However, only two questions are allowed by the ADA to verify if your dog is a service animal are as follows:
- Is this animal a service animal?
- What task or work has this animal been trained to perform?
No other documentation or information is legally required for your service animal.
How They Assist the Handler
Service animals help their handlers by completing commands to help their handlers live a better life, and provide their owners more ease as they go about their day.
Some of the tasks service animals perform include applying deep pressure therapy during an anxiety attack, guiding the visually impaired, and retrieving medications. The completion of these tasks to assist their owner is what sets emotional support animals apart from service animals.
Public Access Rights
Public access rights are one of the biggest differences to keep in mind between service animals and emotional support animals.
Service animals are granted wide-reaching public access rights to ensure they can assist their handlers in as many spaces as possible. Under the ADA, a service animal is legally permitted to enter any space the handler can, including establishments where pets may be prohibited, such as restaurants, stores, and malls.
Emotional support animals are not recognized service animals under the ADA, and they cannot accompany their owner in spaces that do not allow animals.
New Hampshire businesses can deny emotional support animals due to a no-pet policy, though many in the state make exceptions for ESAs, and you may be able to take your ESA to a pet-friendly establishment.
An Overview of New Hampshire Emotional Support Animal Laws
In general, New Hampshire upholds federal laws put in place for emotional support animals. You can expect the state to maintain all federal protections granted to your ESA. We discuss more about New Hampshire emotional support animal laws below.
New Hampshire Emotional Support Animal Housing Laws
Although there aren’t state-specific ESA laws in New Hampshire, the Fair Housing Act (FHA) protects emotional support animals, and New Hampshire upholds these laws. Landlords in New Hampshire must make accommodations for an emotional support animal and can’t deny housing to prospective tenants just because they have an ESA.
A reasonable accommodation for an emotional support animal is making an adjustment, change, or exception to a rule or policy, such as a no-pet clause in a lease or rental agreement.
Therefore, landlords in New Hampshire can’t ask emotional support animals to be removed from the property due to no-pet policies. It is also illegal for New Hampshire landlords to deny housing to an individual because they have an emotional support animal, in addition to requiring ESA owners to pay pet rent, pet fees, or pet security deposits.
This protection ensures individuals with a valid ESA letter from their licensed mental health professionals can live with their emotional support animals. However, thehousing provider can legally deny an ESA if their presence creates a health or safety risk to other residents or causes damage to the property.
For example, a landlord renting a studio apartment may deny a miniature horse, arguing that their presence will cause damage other than normal wear and tear. In the case of an excessively barking or aggressive dog, the landlord might reject the ESA, stating it will disturb other residents.
Filing a Housing Discrimination Complaint
It’s the legal right of those with an ESA letter to live with their emotional support animal. However, it isn’t uncommon for a landlord to deny an ESA due to a no-pet policy, even when you have all the necessary paperwork.
If you believe you’ve been denied housing because of your disability, file an FHA complaint with the Department of Housing and Urban Development. You can also get legal assistance from New Hampshire Legal Assistance.
New Hampshire Laws for Air Travel With an Emotional Support Animal
Emotional support animals were protected under the Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA) prior to the changes in late 2020. Airlines had to allow emotional support animals in the passenger cabin with their owners and waived pet travel fees, like they do service animals.
However, with the updates in the law, only service animals are permitted to fly with their owners in the passenger cabin. Airlines no longer need to make accommodations to their pet policies for emotional support animals, and you must follow the airline’s pet policy to fly with an ESA.
Although most airlines that fly to and from New Hampshire don’t make an exception for emotional support animals and treat them as service animals, many allow pets.
If your ESA is small enough to be carried in an airline-appropriate carrier, you can take them in the passenger cabin. If not, your ESA can only fly as a checked animal in the cargo compartment, dependant on travel and airline rules.
Keep in mind that if you have a non-traditional emotional support animal, you may have a harder time getting an airline to accept your companion animal onto a flight with you.
A Step-by-Step Guide to Getting an ESA Letter in New Hampshire
Only a licensed mental health professional can write an emotional support animal letter. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to get an ESA letter and what to expect from this process.
1) Determine Your Eligibility
To qualify for an emotional support animal, you must be diagnosed with a mental health condition, such as depression, anxiety, or post-traumatic stress disorder, or another disability that could benefit from the presence of an ESA. Your provider will have the final say on your eligbility for a companion animal.
2) Schedule an Appointment With an LMHP
The first step to obtaining an ESA letter once you suspect you could benefit from an emotional support animal is to schedule an appointment with an licensed mental healthcare provider in New Hampshire to discuss ESAs as an option in your treatment.
If you live in New Hampshire (or are moving there) and you aren’t connected with an LMHP, we can help. Fill out our ESA consultation form and we can put you in touch with an LMHP who will evaluate whether you qualify for an ESA letter.
3) Attend Your Appointment
When your appointment date comes, attend your session to talk about your symptoms. As you consult with your doctor, discuss emotional support animals as an option. If you already have a pet and their presence provides comfort and helps you cope with your symptoms, mentioning this to your doctor can help them decide.
If your LMHP decides you may benefit from having an emotional support animal, they will write you an ESA letter. It may take multiple sessions before your mental health professional comes to a conclusion, and there’s no guarantee that you’ll get an ESA letter simply because you want or need it. It’s ultimately up to your doctor or therapist to determine this.
5) Get Your ESA Letter
Once your doctor decides that an emotional support animal is a good option for your treatment plan, they will write you an ESA letter.
Provide the details your LMHP asks to complete your emotional support animal letter, such as your ESA’s type, breed, and other basic details; your letter will state your need for an ESA, an essential part of requesting accommodations.
When obtaining your ESA letter, inspect it for your therapist’s license number, contact information, and handwritten signature. Without these, your ESA letter won’t be valid.
New Hampshire ESA Law FAQs
Do you still have questions about ESAs in New Hampshire? We answer the most common ones below.
Do I Need to Register My ESA in New Hampshire?
Registration for emotional support animals isn’t mandatory. You aren’t required by law to register your emotional support animal anywhere, and your ESA letter is the only documenation you need for your ESA.
Although emotional support animal registries don’t offer any legal benefits, they may help prove the validity of your emotional support animal to entities.
Can Landlords in New Hampshire Ask for an ESA Letter?
Your landlord in New Hampshire can request an ESA letter to ensure the validity of your emotional support animal. As a prospective tenant, your landlord may also ask for it before signing the lease. Also, landlords have a legal right to request a renewed ESA letter annually.
Do ESA Letters Expire in New Hampshire?
An ESA letter is valid for one year from the date it was written by your mental health professional.
It is possible to renew an ESA letter to maintain housing accommodation for your ESA after one year if your condition persists. Since housing providers can ask for an ESA letter annually, consider getting it renewed before your lease is up.
Wrapping Up ESA Laws in Hampshire
When it comes to adding an emotional support animal to your life, it’s important that you keep both state and federal laws surrounding your ESA rights in mind. In New Hampshire, the most important law to know about is the federal Fair Housing Act that protects your right to live with your emotional support animal, regardless of pet restrictions and without pet fees.
Speak to a licensed mental healthcare provider in the state as soon as possible for an evaluation on adding an emotional support animal to your treatment plan.